Modi secures landslide election win

Published : Friday, 24 May, 2019 at 12:00 AM Count : 793

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Amit Shah gesture as they celebrate the victory in India's general elections in New Delhi on Thursday. Photo: AFP

NEW DELHI, May 23: Indian PM Narendra Modi has secured another five-year term after winning a landslide general election victory as his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) increased its majority with 302 out of 543 seats in parliament.Official data from the Election Commission showed BJP upped from the 282 it won in 2014 and more than the 272 seats needed for a majority in the lower house of parliament. The main opposition alliance, which is headed by Rahul Gandhi's Congress party, has admitted defeat. The vote had been widely viewed as a referendum on the prime minister's Hindu nationalist politics. That would give his party the first back-to-back majority for a single party since 1984. "Together we will build a strong and inclusive India," Modi said on Twitter. "India wins yet again!" Modi has slashed red tape in the world's fifth-largest economy, though some overseas firms, including Amazon, Walmart and Mastercard , have complained about policies they say are designed to benefit domestic rivals. He will face demands to provide jobs for the tens of millions of young people coming on to the market in the next few years and to boost depressed farm incomes.

Modi secures landslide election win

"The immediate challenges are to address employment, the issue of agricultural income and revive the banking sector," said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Care Ratings in Mumbai. But making good on his promise of unity will be difficult as the BJP campaign was often divisive, and India's Muslim minority has expressed fears that policies aimed at pleasing the Hindu majority could imperil their livelihoods. Modi's pledge of a strong stand against a separatist movement in Muslim-majority Kashmir has fueled tension with nuclear-armed rival Pakistan, although its prime minister, Imran Khan, congratulated Modi on his win. "Look forward to working with him for peace, progress and prosperity in South Asia," Khan added on Twitter. Besides a harder line on national security, BJP members will look to Modi for progress on a project to building a Hindu temple on the site of a mosque demolished by Hindu zealots in the northern holy town of Ayodhya in 1992. "I want Modi to finish terrorism from Kashmir (and) make Pakistan bite the dust again and again," said Shekhar Chahal, a BJP worker from the capital, New Delhi. "I am confident that Modi will also make the temple in Ayodhya." Cheering supporters set off firecrackers and showered the mastermind of the campaign, BJP President Amit Shah, with petals as he arrived at party headquarters in New Delhi. "It's a stamp of approval by voters on the honest and decisive leadership of Prime Minister Modi," said Nalin S Kohli, a BJP spokesman. The NDA's predicted margin of victory, at 348 seats versus 85 for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, according to broadcaster NDTV, far exceeds survey forecasts in the run-up to the vote. -REUTERS